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Ok, it’s not related to photography at all, but thought I’d post something topical by way of a change.

For some reason, I can’t remember filling out a census form before. This is strange as I’m 43 years old.

Theoretically this should be the second one I’m directly responsible for completing but either due to the sheer banality of the previous one or due to me being in an alcopop fuelled coma for the last 22 years it seems to have passed me by. Imagine the anticipation of being able to do my bit as I followed the instructions and left it to be filled out today. Trembling with excitement, I opened the envelope this afternoon and was delighted to see tyhat I could fill out the form online. Finding a pen in this house is always difficult, and I always have problems keeping the letters in the ridiculously small boxes. I was mildly surprised do discover that the website was actually available after firing up the browser and on entering my very special personalised secret code, I began attacking the questions with gusto. Buoyed along knowing that my £1000 fine wasn’t going to be helping anyone seek asylum and would remain distinctly the property of my Bank Manager I eagerly began to read the questions, requiring my extremely important input.
By the time I’d completed my name, I’d had enough. Last-pass got confused and tried to add my profile details to all the wrong boxes, so it was manual typing all the way. To ease the boredom, I invented a new game called “Select check-boxes randomly to see what questions get skipped” (bit of a mouthful, will try and find a proper title for that game later) and another where I was to follow the instructions to the letter.
Even this was pretty dull, so I was rather pleased when 15 minutes later, having entered the exact same answers to all 5 occupants of the household I’d finished. Fairly sure that by the time the next one comes round I’ll have forgotten this as well, but my ultra favourite questions were 34 and 35. Really enjoyed trying to come up with a brief description of my job……….

Was a little surprised that there wasn’t a question about how many pets we’ve buried in the garden this year or even one for what our favourite vegetables are but I guess they can just make all that up once they’ve got the important stuff out of the way. Hope my answers have helped in some way and I’ll sleep a lot better tonight knowing that my responses will in some way contribute to keeping an army of statisticians and analysts in a job. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the results published online so I can see if I’m the only one in the UK that has 5 different religions living under one roof, in harmony about most things bar the Salad Cream / Mayonnaise argument.

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The first known stapler was handmade in the 18th century in France for King Louis XV. Each staple was inscribed with the insignia of the royal court, as required.[1] The growing uses of paper in the 19th century created a demand for an efficient paper fastener.[2]

In 1866, George McGill received U.S. patent 56,587 [3] for a small, bendable brass paper fastener that was a precursor to the modern staple. In 1867, he received U.S. patent 67,665[4] for a press to insert the fastener into paper. He showed his invention at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and continued to work on these and other various paper fasteners through the 1880s. In 1868 a patent was also taken out for a stapler in England by C.H.Gould. As well, also in 1868, Albert Kletzker of St Louis, MO patented a device to staple paper.

In 1877 Henry R. Heyl filed patent number 195603 for the first machines to both insert and clinch a staple in one step [5],and for this reason some consider him as the inventor of the modern stapler. In 1876 and 1877 Heyl also filed patents for the Novelty Paper Box Manufacturing Co of Philadelphia,PA [6], However, the N. P. B. Manufacturing Co.’s inventions were to be used to staple boxes and books.

The first machine to hold a magazine of many preformed staples came out in 1878.

On February 18, 1879, George McGill received patent 212,316[7] for the McGill Single-Stroke Staple Press, the first commercially successful stapler. This device weighed over two and a half pounds and loaded a single 1/2 inch wide wire staple, which it could drive through several sheets of paper.

The first published use of the word “stapler” to indicate a machine for fastening papers with a thin metal wire was in an advertisement in the American Munsey’s Magazine in 1901

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Been sorting through some forgotten folders on my Mac, trying to tidy everything up in a vain attempt to become more organised. Stumbled across this forgotten shot from my first ever visit to Liverpool whereupon I spent the evening wandering around the docks on my own….

Unfortunately it’s a bit soft (hand held evening shots often are) but I did quite like the contrast and colour. If I’m honest it could probably do with the bottom bit cropped off, but no time for editing today.

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It is often said that money, makes the world go round. Quite frankly this is silly. I’m not a physisisisisist, in fact I can’t even spell it, but I do know that the world goes round because at some point in the dim and distant past before God, Dinosaurs and Fish a giant Space Mammoth brushed against it in it’s haste to get to the toilet at the other end of the universe. It’s also true (apparently) that the world will one day stop spinning, at which point gravity will cease to exist and we’ll all become as light as feathers and float into the sky.

I haven’t gone mad, I was just thinking of a title for this picture and it dawned on me that it isn’t money that makes the world go round, it’s the world that makes money go round.

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